Mazda is forging ahead with six-cylinder diesel engines in its premium cars. They attract great performance specs, but also big price tags. Paul Maric sees if the new Mazda CX-90 is worth the big price tag.
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Mazda content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mazda
More Mazda CX-90 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mazda/cx-90
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 01:08
Interior 03:29
Infotainment 05:00
Safety Tech 07:16
Practicality 08:43
On the road 15:48
Performance 24:26
Verdict 26:52
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#mazda #cx90 #review
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Mazda content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mazda
More Mazda CX-90 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mazda/cx-90
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 01:08
Interior 03:29
Infotainment 05:00
Safety Tech 07:16
Practicality 08:43
On the road 15:48
Performance 24:26
Verdict 26:52
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
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#mazda #cx90 #review
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. A little while back we had a chance to check out the Mazda CX-90, but it was in pre-production form.
00:05 We finally have our hands on an actual production version.
00:09 I've spent a bit of time with this and I'm keen to get better understanding of whether it's worth the price tag
00:14 they've put on it. So today, I'll definitively answer that for you. This one here is the mid-spec.
00:19 It's called the GT. This one is the diesel as well. So we're keen to see how this performs.
00:24 Recently, we actually checked out the CX-60,
00:26 which is the slightly smaller version of this and you can watch that review by clicking up here.
00:31 Now this is priced at just under $85,000,
00:36 which is a big chunk of money.
00:37 But if that is too expensive, the entire range kicks off at just under $74,000.
00:41 This competes with things like the Hyundai Palisade.
00:44 They want you to think that it competes with things like the XC90 and the Q7 as well,
00:49 but we'll see whether that is the case today. Today, we're going to do a detailed review of this car.
00:53 So if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review,
00:56 you can use the time codes that are on the screen or if you are on YouTube,
00:59 you can scroll down and use the chapters below. And please make sure you subscribe to our channel if you haven't done so already,
01:04 so you can find out every single time we review a new Mazda.
01:07 Okay, so let's talk about exterior design.
01:12 Start off with the colors. You've got a stack to choose from and I haven't seen this color before. I think it looks sensational.
01:19 It really just works well with the variation of other colors you have on the car.
01:24 So the black wheel arches and the black badges and stuff,
01:26 I think it actually looks really nice. And the vehicle itself actually looks really nice as well.
01:30 You've got to keep in mind, this is just over five meters long.
01:33 It's only marginally shorter than a BMW X7, but it doesn't look and feel big here in person,
01:38 which I think is really important that you don't want to feel intimidated by the car that you're driving.
01:41 Down here, you've got chrome highlights around that grille section, black in there,
01:47 and then if you look behind there, you have active louvers as well that open and close depending on the vehicle's cooling requirements.
01:52 Parking sensors down the front there as well. And then an air dam down the bottom here for cooling.
01:56 You have adaptive LED headlights with a little orange reflector there on the side and then a tiny bit of aero down the side here as well.
02:04 Whip around to the side here. So here you're gonna find 21-inch alloy wheels.
02:10 It's a big old wheel, 45 profile tire, nice looking wheels as well.
02:14 It's got sort of a bit of a graphite looking finish on it.
02:17 And then you've got wheel arch cladding here as well. Has just over 200 millimeters of ground clearance,
02:22 which isn't too bad for a vehicle this size. It isn't really off-road capable,
02:27 but it is good to have just a little bit more ground clearance there if you do need it.
02:31 Up the top here, you've got a badge there for inline six, both the petrol and diesel version of this are both six cylinders.
02:36 They will be doing a plug-in hybrid version at some point down the track, which is
02:41 based on a different engine as well. So I'm keen to see how that goes as well.
02:45 Up the top here, you have an indicator built into the wing mirror and a camera there for the 360 camera.
02:49 Bit more chrome and black down the bottom section here.
02:53 You do have a glass roof here as well and then come around to the back with me.
02:57 So LED taillights here. Love the look of those with that pulsing finish on the indicator.
03:04 Skyactiv-D, so D stands for diesel, E because this uses a mild hybrid system that I'll run you through when we go for a bit of a drive.
03:11 And then CX-90 all-wheel drive because this is in fact all-wheel drive.
03:16 Outside of that, I think the design actually looks pretty good. Design is subjective, so some people don't like it,
03:21 but I actually reckon it looks pretty nice here. Let me know what you reckon in the comments section below.
03:25 Do you think it's a good-looking rig? Do you think it's a lot of money? I'm keen for your feedback.
03:29 So we are inside the CX-90. This is what the key looks like.
03:33 You've got a Mazda logo there, nothing on the front, and then you've got lock,
03:38 unlock, boot, and it's a proximity sensing key, so you can leave that in your pocket. You have a
03:44 start button just here. So what do we reckon about this? So this is $85,000 odd.
03:51 You can spend over $100,000 on these.
03:53 Look, I think it's nice, but to me this doesn't really look all that spectacular for that price.
04:00 And I'm talking about stuff like these materials. This kind of just looks,
04:04 I don't know, just looks a little bit cheap. Same story over here on the doors. Some of this plastic is just a bit cheap and
04:10 not very nice. So,
04:12 yeah, I do like that they've gone to a bit of effort here to make the
04:16 surfaces soft touch and that kind of thing, but I just think it could look a little bit nicer for the price tag,
04:22 especially when they want to be competing with things like
04:25 the Q7 XC90, and XC90, despite its age, still actually feels significantly nicer inside than this does. So
04:32 that is something worth keeping in mind. Outside of that though, touch points,
04:35 not too bad just there, nice and soft. Soft on the door as well. How soft are they? We've got our durometer.
04:42 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
04:44 If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before,
04:47 have a look at the link in the description below. Now, build quality. So it's made in Japan.
04:52 What's it all like? Nice and solid there. It all feels pretty good. And this is what the door sounds like.
04:57 Now let's talk about infotainment. So you've got two screens here.
05:03 You've got the infotainment screen and also the screen ahead of the driver.
05:07 So both measure 12.3 inches.
05:09 We're only through the screen ahead of the driver and the head-up display in just a sec, but we'll start off over here.
05:14 Now, it's a really impressive screen because it's high resolution and it sits
05:19 right where you want it to sit in terms of your eye line. It's not too low. It's not too high.
05:23 It's sort of exactly where it needs to be.
05:25 This also has a driver distraction monitor and that basically keeps an eye on you and makes sure you're not distracted and I'll explain why
05:32 it's not very good shortly.
05:34 Outside of that, you control the infotainment screen down here using this iDrive-esque controller. It's not a touchscreen,
05:42 confusingly, but it is a touchscreen in smartphone mirroring, but only when you're stationary.
05:48 So, I don't know, it's a bit of a bit of a weird one,
05:51 but that is the way that works. In terms of the features, you have inbuilt satellite navigation.
05:57 So that is, it works even if you don't have a smartphone paired to it.
06:01 But if you do want more accurate and I guess more up-to-date traffic,
06:05 you can just pair a smartphone and it comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
06:10 So I'll jump on to Apple CarPlay here. So full screen integration. It's wireless.
06:17 It's nice and quick there, which is good. And this is what Android Auto looks like. Same story again, full screen.
06:23 Fairly responsive as well. So that is all good on that front. Now in terms of radio,
06:29 you have a Bose branded sound system AM/FM DAB digital radio.
06:35 And it's a 12 speaker sound system. Pretty good sound system in my opinion. Over ahead of the driver here.
06:40 So this screen, I'm a big fan of. It's high resolution,
06:44 which is good, but it is a little bit laggy at times.
06:47 You notice it with the rev gauge when the engine is turning off and on, it can just be a tiny bit laggy there in
06:52 terms of how it works. I think that's just down to the refresh rate of the screen.
06:55 But outside of that, it actually looks pretty good. You can then just change what appears on the screen.
06:59 So using the info button, you can flick through the menus on the right hand side.
07:02 And then once you engage cruise control, that actually gives you a
07:06 sort of idea of where the cars are ahead of you, which is pretty cool.
07:09 Head-up display is great as well. Nice and big, very clear and
07:14 easy to see through as well. Let's talk about safety. So you've got autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and
07:21 cyclist detection. It has a junction assist function. So if you try and turn across traffic,
07:26 it'll slam the brakes on for you.
07:28 You've got an auto dimming rear vision mirror, blind spot monitor built into the wing mirrors. I mentioned before the distraction camera.
07:35 Look, it's fine because yeah, it'll tell you if you're distracted,
07:39 but it actually tells you you're distracted when you're not distracted.
07:42 And I find that highly annoying as well because then it defeats the purpose of that feature
07:46 existing in itself. And a lot of the other safety features are really frustrating as well.
07:51 It's just constantly binging and buzzing and telling you that stuff's happening. It's trying to force the wheel out of your hand
07:57 when you get near a line. It really is just quite distracting and not very well refined.
08:01 And we found the exact same thing with the CX-60. When we go for a bit of a drive,
08:05 we'll see how it performs sort of here in these conditions. But yeah, just on the way out here today,
08:10 I just wasn't really overly impressed with all of that stuff. You've got radar cruise control. On the parking front,
08:15 you have front and rear parking sensors and a 360 camera. I'll show you what that looks like.
08:19 So that's your vision out the front. You can go wide angle and then you can also do side vision.
08:25 And I'll show you what the reverse camera looks like. I'll turn this on for a second.
08:28 There it is there. So the quality is pretty decent.
08:33 I can clearly see what's written there on the suitcase. And then you can also adjust those views as you go as well.
08:39 So yeah, not a bad setup. This is what the horn sounds like.
08:41 Now let's talk about practicality and we'll start off with your connectivity. So down here, you've got a wireless phone charger.
08:48 You have a 12-volt outlet. In the center console here, you've got two USB-C ports.
08:54 So where are you going to store your phone? Well, you can whack it here in the cup holders
08:57 or you can pop it on the wireless phone charger. Speaking of cup holders, where are you going to put your little coffee cup?
09:03 So it goes in here fine and it's sort of got the right depth as well for a small coffee with teeth in there to
09:09 hold your bottles and cups in place. Same story with a normal-sized bottle. Also fits inside the door without any dramas.
09:16 Does our big bottle fit though? Let's have a little look.
09:20 Yes, it does. Very impressive.
09:22 Now what about other storage? So down here near the driver's knee,
09:26 you've got a little slot there for coins and keys and that type of thing.
09:29 The center console though, randomly, is tiny and it makes no sense because I don't think there's anything behind.
09:35 Like there must be something behind there, but it's just very small for a vehicle this size and an opening that size as well.
09:42 Down here, you've got yourself a pretty reasonably sized glove box and finally a sunglasses holder up the top.
09:48 Now what about your comfort? So you've got dual-zone automatic climate control up the front here.
09:53 You've got heated seats and a heated steering wheel. In terms of seat adjustment, you can go forwards, backwards.
09:59 It's electric, by the way. Backrest goes forwards, backwards. Front of the seat goes up and down.
10:03 The back of the seat goes up and down. You have electric lumbar adjustment as well.
10:08 The seats themselves are fairly comfortable.
10:11 Sort of did a fair highway drive to get here and they're a little bit firm,
10:17 but I'm keen to see what it feels like over a longer distance drive to see whether they retain that.
10:22 Passenger seat is electrically adjustable as well. On the steering front,
10:26 it goes up and down, in and out and that's all electrically adjustable.
10:31 In terms of the reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach. The screen though,
10:36 if you do need to use the touch portions of it,
10:38 it is a little bit of a stretch away and it is a little more difficult to touch it while you're driving.
10:43 But like I said, once you're moving, none of the touchscreen functionality works anyway.
10:47 Okay, so second row, I want to show you something. Have a look at this. The doors open almost 90 degrees.
10:52 We saw that in the CX-60 as well and I found it was
10:55 really good for getting my little one in when I had the baby seat in there.
10:59 So that is great news. In terms of room, have a look at this. Loads of knee room. Toe room is excellent.
11:06 Headroom is pretty good as well. In terms of your creature comforts back here, you've got USB-C charging ports,
11:13 another zone of climate control and heated seats for the outboard seats and then air vents as well.
11:19 It is kind of strange. There isn't any storage room in there when
11:23 there isn't really much going on here outside of these air vents.
11:26 So I think it's probably a bit of a wasted opportunity there and they could have used that space a little bit better.
11:30 You've got map pockets in the back of the seats.
11:33 You have ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats with top tether points along here as well.
11:38 Centre armrest there with two cup holders. You've got these curtains here if you want to stop the sun coming in.
11:46 And then you can also slide this row forwards and backwards to give you a bit more room for the third row,
11:51 which we'll check out in a second. And then our window test.
11:55 It's auto up and down. Does it go all the way down? No, not quite, unfortunately.
12:00 Okay, so
12:02 third row. Let's see what it's like. I know that with most of these things, the third row is just for kids,
12:07 but given this is Mazda's biggest car,
12:10 I want to see what it's like for adults. So to get in, you've got a button down here that
12:15 brings the seat forward and allows you to slide it through. So let's see how we go.
12:20 Okie dokie.
12:24 What I'm going to do, I'm going to bring
12:26 this seat all the way back just so we can see what it's like to start with.
12:30 Actually,
12:33 I can't really go any further back than that.
12:35 But you know what? It's actually not too bad. So I've got
12:40 okay toe room. It is a little wedged under there, but it's not too bad. Knee room is perfectly fine.
12:46 Sean, I might get you to get a shot of how much room there is there, but I've only had to move
12:51 this second row forward just a touch to give me that space. So
12:54 I'm actually
12:56 pretty impressed with that. Headroom is really good as well. So
12:58 USB-C over here, you've got two cup holders as well. Another USB-C over there, two more cup holders, and then air vents down the bottom here too.
13:07 So tell you what, I'm actually really surprised with this space.
13:10 Normally with these vehicles, the third row you cannot fit adults in.
13:14 What did we test recently that had a third row that wasn't built for adults?
13:18 That's right, the Kia EV9. That thing is enormous on a big wheelbase as well.
13:23 This has significantly more space, but it typically means that you are then limited with boot space.
13:29 So let's go check out how much you've got available in the boot. Okay, let's have a little look.
13:33 So
13:35 you have, according to Mazda,
13:38 that is so low.
13:41 When that is pushed up, that is so low. That's bizarre.
13:44 So according to Mazda, there's around 600 litres of cargo space available here, including the space under the floor.
13:51 And it's actually a really usable space because
13:54 typically with these three-row SUVs, they jam that third row up as far back as they can, and then you end up having no
14:01 space here at all. This is actually not too bad. And also, I love this, off to the side
14:05 you have a power outlet as well, 150 watt and a 12-volt outlet too. And then beneath the cargo floor, you just have some of your
14:12 recovery items. What else have we got under here? We've got a space saver spare under there as well. So yeah, not a bad
14:19 packaging effort. I'll show you what it looks like with our bags in here. So
14:23 there's the laptop bag,
14:26 and here is the suitcase. So that all fits perfectly fine, which is good news.
14:30 Then what you can do is drop your third row out of the way by pulling this down, dropping that.
14:38 That expands the space to around 1,100 litres. Again,
14:42 really good space there in terms of storage and fairly flat load floor.
14:46 If you do want to go to the next step though, you can get rid of that second row too.
14:50 That then gives you over 2,000 litres to work with, but it is an ascending floor there, so it doesn't sort of sit totally flat.
14:57 So we've just hit the road in the CX-90, and as luck would have it, it has just bucketed down.
15:06 That's going to be very wet out there, but we'll see how we go anyway.
15:08 Now,
15:10 we did drive this as a pre-production car in petrol form, but haven't driven the diesel version of this,
15:16 which is why I was excited to sort of pick the diesel and in a mid-spec as well,
15:21 because I want to see what potentially the majority of people are actually going to be buying.
15:25 So powering the diesel is also a six-cylinder, but this is a 3.3-litre turbocharged inline six-cylinder
15:32 diesel engine, and it makes
15:35 187 kilowatts of power and 550 newton metres of torque, which is
15:40 a pretty sort of generous amount, and
15:43 you've got to remember that a lot of the vehicles in this segment have now
15:46 downsized, or they've got a lot of emissions control equipment on them, and as a result of that,
15:50 they're not actually all that interesting to drive, and I think what Mazda is aiming to do with this
15:54 is bringing back that interesting to drive element, and that's all mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission.
16:00 It's an in-house transmission. It means that Mazda has developed this all on their own.
16:04 Look, the transmission's okay. I don't love it. It can be sort of lazy at times,
16:10 so you can actually catch it napping if you're driving along and sort of poke the throttle, and that to me,
16:15 I think is just a sign of
16:17 not so much cost cutting, but a company that perhaps doesn't know transmissions,
16:21 and that's why a lot of manufacturers will go to a brand like ZF and get a transmission off the shelf
16:25 that is designed by a company that just does transmissions.
16:28 But you do have the ability to control gear shifts here on the steering wheel
16:32 using the paddle shifters, and that's actually not a bad system, because it will then dive through the gears
16:36 as required nice and quickly, and that's all sort of pretty responsive.
16:40 And then in-gear acceleration is excellent too. When you get stuck into it,
16:44 it really does punch you nicely in the back, and I think that is
16:47 quite rewarding and something that you want from a vehicle in this segment.
16:50 Now, let's talk about the thing I don't like.
16:56 So I do like the engine, the way that it makes it feel, the punch in the back that you get,
17:00 but I really dislike this stop-start system, and I'll show you what I mean first before I explain why. So there it is.
17:06 It's off,
17:07 and then comes back on, and it's able to switch itself off,
17:10 I think all the way to over 100 k's an hour, and it's great because
17:13 when it is switched off, you're not using any fuel at all, and then it'll come back on and away you go.
17:18 The system is designed entirely to operate the vehicle's electronic systems when it is switched off.
17:23 It's a 48 volt mild hybrid system, and in layman's terms, it's basically there to keep all of those
17:30 systems that need a lot of electricity running when the car is switched off, which you typically can't do with a 12-volt system.
17:35 So that's all great, but where it really falls down is when it is switching back on.
17:40 When you are at a full stop and it switches back on, it's pretty nice and smooth,
17:44 but right now when it's off, if I lean on the throttle,
17:46 it then sort of jars the car a little bit, and you end up getting this constant
17:51 jerky motion as it comes in and out of gear when it's on and off, and to me,
17:56 it just lacks the refinement of some of the European vehicles that have integrated starter generators.
18:00 This really just needs a lot more work done to it.
18:03 Even when you're approaching intersections at like 40 k's an hour, you're slowing down, it'll switch off,
18:08 and when you go for the throttle, you then get this clunky effect of it not being in the right gear,
18:12 and then you just end up jerking around, and it just doesn't feel premium at all.
18:17 So that is something they need to work on, and I'm hoping that over time they can actually develop a better software system to manage this
18:23 stop-start setup.
18:27 Now, what does all that mean in terms of fuel economy? Well, Mazda claims a combined
18:31 average of under 6 litres per 100 k's,
18:35 which I always thought was a bit ambitious for this, so let's have a look at how we're doing. Yeah, 7.7.
18:41 We have been doing a lot of driving earlier on today because of the rain, but
18:44 the best I could see out of it was 6.9, and that was with pretty much all highway driving,
18:49 so I think that claim of 5.4, I think it is, it's just way too ambitious and pretty unrealistic,
18:55 but having said that, that is actually not a bad figure to be actually hitting in a vehicle this size.
19:00 It's just not the one that they claim.
19:02 And just for those of you who are interested, the way that this stop-start system works, it actually plums energy when
19:09 you're coasting or braking into a small 0.3 kilowatt-hour battery, and that's all done through an 11 kilowatt
19:15 generator. It then has a small electric motor that's able to run both the vehicle and its systems when it is switched off,
19:22 so you can do a light bit of throttle before the engine has to kick back on.
19:26 It's just the way that it does, the whole kicking back on sequence is very good.
19:29 Okay, time to check out our sine waves. We do this at 130 k's an hour.
19:37 The whole purpose of this is to see what body control is like
19:40 when speed picks up.
19:43 There it is there.
19:44 That is fantastic. They've done such a good job there with just getting the ride spot on for things like that.
19:51 In and around the city, the ride
19:53 can be a little bit firm, but it's nowhere near as bad as the CX-60.
19:57 They really have gone to a lot more effort to refine the ride here,
20:00 and then you get the benefits of excellent body control there as well, because it's able to just
20:05 keep its body under check as it hits those
20:09 continuous undulations. You're going to experience stuff like that when you're out on a country road and you're trying to overtake.
20:14 It is really good that they have dialed in all of the comfort levels required to have a suspension that actually works for Australian conditions.
20:21 [Sounds of a car passing by]
20:23 Okay, it's time for the worst road in Australia. We do this at 90 k's an hour.
20:27 It's just an indication of a
20:30 terrible country road.
20:33 It's full of potholes and corrugations and just
20:37 roughness.
20:40 This is actually remarkably good. It still feels really comfortable here inside the car. These are our condensed sine waves.
20:46 It shakes the living daylights out of the car,
20:50 but it is doing a remarkably good job here. They've done a great job with the ride.
20:53 It is significantly better than the CX-60, which is just way too firm. This is right where it needs to be. Very impressive.
20:59 [Sounds of a car passing by]
21:01 Now I want to run you through quickly this platform. It's quite interesting.
21:05 So it's predominantly rear-wheel drive,
21:08 so it means that it actually sends all of its torque to the rear,
21:10 then it has a clutch pack that can pulse torque to the front axle.
21:14 And that's different to a lot of all-wheel drives that are part-time, because normally they're front-wheel drive,
21:19 and they only ever send torque to the rear when it's needed.
21:21 This is the opposite, and it means you get that sort of rear-wheel drive effect behind the wheel,
21:25 which I think is really a beneficial thing to have. In terms of your drive modes, you have Sport, Normal and Off-Road.
21:30 It is unfortunately sopping wet, so this is not going to be the fastest lap in the world.
21:35 But let's go around our ride and handling track, so immediately I can feel the brakes
21:40 don't have a really decent amount of feel through them.
21:43 [Sounds of a car passing by]
21:45 [Sounds of a car passing by]
21:47 [Sounds of a car passing by]
21:49 [Sounds of a car passing by]
21:51 [Sounds of a car passing by]
21:53 There you go, I love that as well.
21:55 So it has that rear-wheel drive effect to it,
21:59 and it's just not something that you're used to in this segment,
22:01 because a lot of the vehicles in this segment are that front-wheel drive type,
22:05 so you really are getting a little bit of fun here behind the wheel,
22:09 and I can immediately actually feel those sporty connotations here.
22:13 It just wants to...
22:15 [Sounds of a car passing by]
22:17 It gives you a bit of body roll, it's kind of like an MX-5, the way they've programmed the feel in that.
22:21 It gives you the body roll that you need, but it's very predictable,
22:25 you know exactly what it's going to do, and it never wants to spit you out,
22:29 and leave you looking like a bad driver, so I really like that.
22:33 I don't love the brake pedal feel, the pedal is very firm.
22:37 [Sounds of a car passing by]
22:39 [Sounds of a car passing by]
22:41 You don't really get the responsiveness. If you dive on it, it actually will pull up the vehicle perfectly fine,
22:45 but it just feels a little bit firm for my liking.
22:48 Same story with the steering. So, here in Sport mode, it is heavy, which I'm perfectly fine with,
22:53 but even at low speeds, the steering is quite heavy as well,
22:56 and I think that isn't the best thing in the world, because you're going to have families,
23:00 and, I don't know, like my wife would drive this, and she's just not a fan of heavy steering,
23:05 so I think that that's probably something they need to work on as well.
23:08 But as a driver's car, it is phenomenally good. It is wet now, but earlier when it was dry,
23:12 we were able to have a fair bit of fun in this, and I think that they've done a great job
23:17 in terms of the ride and handling package, and just making it feel like a sporty SUV.
23:21 And certainly up against the Euros, this actually does feel quite sporty.
23:25 [Sounds of a car passing by]
23:26 Now, road noise. It is pretty quiet, especially out on the freeway,
23:30 course trip roads, it's actually not that bad.
23:32 This is the result we got with our calibrated sound meter, but do keep in mind that it is wet,
23:36 so it is typically a little louder than what it would be if it was dry.
23:40 So in terms of towing capacity, you have a 2,000 kilo brake towing capacity,
23:43 but it's a bit of a furphy, because you only have a maximum down ball weight of 150 kilos,
23:49 so ideally you don't want to be towing more than 1,500 kilos.
23:53 I mean, you can, but you just have to get the distribution right.
23:57 So, yeah, look, it is a good, but not an amazing towing figure for a vehicle this size.
24:01 Visibility, what's it like? Look, I can see clearly down the front of the car there,
24:04 the wing mirrors are big, but the wing mirrors are a bit strange, despite their size.
24:09 They kind of are not great to see out of, everything is really close.
24:13 I just wish they could be a bit more wide angle, given their size.
24:15 Visibility out the rear is good. Keep in mind if you do have that third row up,
24:19 it will impede vision a little bit, but I'm pretty impressed with how much vision there is actually out the back there.
24:23 [Sounds of a car passing by]
24:25 So let's do some performance testing.
24:28 Before we get into that, I just wanted to tell you about Help Me Car Expert.
24:31 It's by our friends at CarWow.
24:33 We're actually a big company, CarExpert.
24:36 It's not just us guys filming stuff here.
24:38 We've got like over 50 full-time employees, and we have a stack of vetted dealers on our books
24:43 that are vetted to get you the best deal and the best customer experience.
24:47 So, if you do want a car like this that's in stock, or one that isn't in stock yet,
24:52 but you want a good deal on it, just go to Google and type in Help Me Car Expert,
24:56 and that will connect you with our dealers and give you a bit of an idea of exactly what we do.
25:01 Now, in terms of the actual performance numbers, what we're going to do here is go from 0 all the way through to 120.
25:07 That will give us an idea of what this is like in terms of overtaking, as well as just 0 to 100.
25:12 It is unfortunately wet outside, but we'll see how we go anyway.
25:16 And, yeah, let's give it a crack. I've turned traction control off as well, so here we go.
25:20 [Sounds of a car passing by]
25:23 Yeah, nice and solid off the line there.
25:25 [Sounds of a car passing by]
25:26 Alrighty.
25:27 [Sounds of a car passing by]
25:28 There's 100.
25:30 [Sounds of a car passing by]
25:32 There's 120.
25:34 [Sounds of a car passing by]
25:35 Alrighty, we'll pull it up.
25:37 So, 0 to 100, 8.26 seconds, so not too bad, not too sort of amazing.
25:43 And then 80 to 120, 5.28 seconds.
25:46 So, that figure's actually pretty good when you consider that 80 to 120 is going to be things like overtaking,
25:51 and I think that's actually a pretty healthy number.
25:54 Let's head back and do a break from 100.
25:56 Kind of pointless, given it's so wet, but we'll give it a shot anyway.
25:59 Okie dokie, so we'll get this up to 100, hit the anchors.
26:02 It is wet, but anyway.
26:04 Alright.
26:06 [Sounds of a car passing by]
26:08 Oh, kiddo.
26:09 [Sounds of a car passing by]
26:14 So, 100 to 0, 3.74 seconds and 54 metres, so yeah, not the best stopping time in the world,
26:20 or the stopping distance, but it is what it is.
26:22 If you do want to see how this compares to other cars that we've tested before,
26:25 have a look at the link in the description below.
26:27 Keep in mind that it is wet, which is going to affect the way this stops.
26:31 If it does drive, we're going to try and get ourselves another time.
26:34 Ok, time for our reverse acceleration test.
26:37 Here we go.
26:38 [Car driving]
26:43 Not bad.
26:44 50 kilometres an hour.
26:46 [Car driving]
26:52 So, the Mazda CX-90, what do we reckon?
26:55 Finally had a chance to drive a proper one and actually spend some time with it as a family car.
27:00 And I came away with mixed emotions, right?
27:03 So, I think it is expensive, and this is certainly more palatable than the $90,000, $100,000 version
27:09 that you can actually get.
27:11 I think this is probably the sweet spot in the range in terms of features and price as well.
27:16 But it is inherently let down by that stop-start system.
27:18 It isn't very good at all.
27:20 I'm also a little disappointed with the fuel economy.
27:22 It's good, but it's still nowhere near the Mazda claim,
27:25 and I'd love to know what they did to actually achieve that type of fuel economy.
27:29 And finally, I just think some of those materials aren't really reflective of a vehicle of that price.
27:34 But, park those things for a second.
27:36 It has a stack of room inside, and as a family car, it actually has pretty much everything that you need
27:41 in a package that isn't big and daunting, and that is extremely fun to drive
27:45 if you find yourself on a twisty mountain road.
27:48 If the price is palatable to you, and you don't mind the materials and stuff that they've used inside the cabin,
27:53 I'd probably be leaning towards the diesel over the petrol version,
27:56 just given how efficient it is, how punchy it is, and how fun it is to drive as well.
28:01 So, let me know in the comments section below, have you bought one of these?
28:04 What's it like to live with? Are you looking at one? Are you daunted by the price?
28:08 Let me know your thoughts.
28:10 I'm always keen to see what people think about models like this, to try and change the game for a brand.
28:14 If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it, and you share it with your mates,
28:18 and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
28:21 But, until next time, take it easy.